Early Wednesday morning, November 12, commuters throughout the USA were delighted to find outthat while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end.
If, that is, they happened to read a "special edition" of New YorkTimes.
As the NewYork Times itself reported later, "pranksters distributed thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others."
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In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street.
Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the war.
The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama's "Yes we REALLY can" speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)
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As the NYT (the genuine one) was later to report, many of the surprisedcommuters took the free copies of the 14-page papers thinking they were genuine.
The hoax was accompanied by a Web site that mimics the look of The Times's real Web site. A page of the spoof site contained links to dozens of progressive organizations, which were also listed in the print edition.
(A headline in the fake business section declares: "Public Relations Industry Forecasts a Series of Massive Layoffs." Uh, sure.)
According to press reports, in addition to New York, copies of the spoof paper were also handed out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, and that the pranksters - whoinclude a film promoter, three unnamed Times employees and Steven Lambert, an art professor - financed the paper with small online contributions and created the paper to urge President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaignpromises. As their statement said: "It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder thanever. We've got to make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do. After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to startimagining heaven."
The NYT (the genuine one) quoted Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School,as saying, "I would say if you've got one, hold on to it...It will probably be a collector's item. I'm just glad someone thinks The New York Times print edition is worthy of an elaborate hoax. A Web spoof would have been infinitely easier. But creating a print newspaper and handing it out at subway stations? That takes a lot of effort." Indeed.
The fake paper had a motto on its front page which read "all the news we hope to print". Clearly, the April Fool's Day had come early -- or late, actually --this year.
